Hands on with the Nokia Lumia 928 and Xenon flash quick test

Summary: The Nokia Lumia 928 goes on sale tomorrow at Verizon for just $99 with a two-year contract or $500 with no contract. It is a nice variant of the 920, and performs the same as that existing device.

Nokia Lumia 928 in Verizon's red box

The Nokia Lumia 928 comes to Verizon this week, and I wanted to share some first impressions as I begin my trial of the device. I have the Lumia 920, and a few days ago I wrote about the difference between the two. One of the major differences is the Xenon flash on the 928, but, as you can see in my image gallery, it doesn't appear to have as much of an advantage as I thought, thanks in large part to the solid low-light performance of the Lumia 920.

There isn't anything really that new or unique that would justify anyone moving from AT&T to Verizon just to go from a 920 to a 928. However, it is great to see a high-end Lumia Windows Phone 8 device available for Verizon customers. The 928 takes all that is great about the 920 and makes it just a bit better with the Xenon flash, OLED display, and improved speaker.

As you can see, the Lumia 928 is a typical Windows Phone device with a couple of advanced features. It is 22 grams lighter than the 920, which was something that several reviewers commented on when the 920 was released. Performance is flawless, but the "Loading..." dialogue is present at times like it is on all Windows Phone devices.

I took a few sample shots with a Nokia N8 with Xenon flash, Nokia Lumia 920, and Nokia Lumia 928 in my gallery in pitch-black conditions. The N8 performed best, but then it was really a toss-up between the Lumia 920 with LED and Lumia 928 with Xenon flash.

This is not a full review of the Lumia 928 by any means, and I plan to take it for a spin for the next couple of weeks. I have been a Windows Phone fan for nearly three years, and want to see if the 928 on Verizon can knock the iPhone 5 out of my hand.

If you have anything specific you want me to check out, feel free to leave a comment or send me a request on Twitter.

Poster shot with Lumia 928

Longer camera bar and flash

Matthew Miller started using a mobile devices in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since. He is a co-host with GigaOM's Kevin Tofel on the MobileTechRoundup podcast and an author of three Wiley Companion series books. Matthew started using mobile devices with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned over 200 d...
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Disclosure

Matthew is a professional naval architect by day and a mobile gadgeteer at all other times. He purchases his own devices and then sells them on eBay or Swappa to buy more. Many other devices are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the carrier or manufacturer. If any are provided as &#8220;long term loaner units&#8221 this will be clearly disclosed in his reviews.